Ethereal Brooklyn synth-pop trio Au Revoir Simone have been on a break since Annie Hart’s pregnancy in 2010, so band member Erika Spring has taken it upon herself to make some more music. Joined by Violens’ Jorge Elbrecht on percussion and production duties, she prepared a self-titled solo EP for Cascine during this time apart. But the question remains: How does the Erika Spring EP compare to the works of her other band?
Erika Spring’s solo EP is like a sibling to her work with Au Revoir Simone. On the surface, both feature airy vocals floating on top of keyboard-sourced dream-pop. These are similarities as apparent as shared eyes, lips, and cheekbones, yet there are differences both immediate and discernible only through close examination. For example, “6 More Weeks” paints a fantastical soundscape as Spring wispily bemoans along to translucent synths, her breezy coo bound to earth by the gravity of tom-style drum machines. To play the name-dropping game of comparison, “6 More Weeks” is more Charlotte Gainsbourg meets Phil Collins as directed by Bat for Lashes than Au Revoir Simone.
Erika Spring is generally more appropriate for dancing than gazing thanks to its warm drum machine beats that are more propulsive than delicate. While “6 More Weeks” masked a pained lament with a whispered loveliness and foreboding otherworldly sounds, the rest of the Erika Spring EP is more straightforward synthpop that assimilates into a world of like-minded mixes of the shimmering and the dreamy. “Hidden” holds up well after repeated listens, revealing a lushly produced smorgasbord of synth layers and vocal melodies that stand out in a challenging manner for such breathy stylings. In the end, Erika Spring’s solo debut falls into the category of pleasant experience.
Essential Tracks: “6 More Weeks”
